Mortality determinants in colorectal cancer patients at different grades: a prospective, cohort study in Iran.

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is an important cause of mortality and morbidity in many communities worldwide. This population based study was conducted to assess determinants of colorectal mortality in Iranian patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cohort of 1,127 cases of confirmed colorectal cancer registered in a population based registry covering 10 referral hospital in Tehran, Iran, were followed for five years. Information about tumor characteristics, smoking status and family history were collected at base line and survival status were followed every six months by contacting patient or next of kin (if patients died during the follow-up). The cause of death for each case was validated by verbal autopsy and referring to patient medical records at the time of death. The data were analyzed by Stata software using univariate and multivariate analysis (Cox regression). In building the model a p value of less than 5% was considered as significant. RESULTS The age at diagnosis was 53.5±14 years. Sixty one percent were male. Colorectal mortality among the patients was 96.9 person-years among men and 83 person-years among women. Seventy five percent of patients lived for 2.72 years, 50% for 5.83, and 25% for 13 years after the diagnosis of colorectal cancer. The age at diagnosis was significantly different between men and women (p<0.03). Higher tumor grade predicted higher death rate; the adjusted hazard ratios were 1.79 (95%CI, 0.88-3.61), 2.16 (95%CI, 1.07-4.37), and 3.1 (95%CI, 1.51-6.34) for grades II, III, and IV respectively when they were compared with grade I as reference. Ethnicity, marital status, family history of cancer, and smoking were related to survival with different degrees of magnitude. CONCLUSIONS Among many factors related to survival among the colorectal patients, tumor grade and smoking showed the highest magnitudes of association

Incidence rate of thyroid cancer in Iranian population, trend analysis from 2003 to 2009

Background and aims: Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignant and papillary cancer and three times more prevalent in women than men. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence rate and trend of thyroid cancer in Iranian population. Methods: National incidence was rated by Iran National Cancer Registry data derived from Iran’s annual national cancer registration reported from 2003 to 2009. The crude rate and age standardized rate were used to express the incidence of thyroid cancer. Results: The results indicated that, the incidence of thyroid cancer increased from 2003 to 2009. The age standardized rate for women and men increased from 2.02 and 0.82 to 4.2 and 1.36 per 100,000, respectively. Conclusion: This study indicated remarkable increasing trends in thyroid cancer incidence. So, attention to high risk groups and public programs is necessary to reduce the incidence of this cancer in future

Effect of metabolic syndrome and its components on survival in colorectal cancer: a prospective study.

INTRODUCTION Metabolic syndrome (MetS) may affect prognosis of the patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC). OBJECTIVES This study was aimed to design a model and to examine the prognostic effect of MetS on survival time in the patients with CRC. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data were collected from 1127 cases of CRC from Cancer Registry Center of the Research Institute of Gastroenterology and Liver Disease, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. In this cohort study, patients were divided into two groups based on the presence of MetS. We tested the prognostic value of MetS in the patients by Cox proportional hazard modeling. RESULTS Mean ± standard deviation of the patients' age at diagnosis in MetS group and non-MetS group was 56 ± 13 years old and 53 ± 15 years old respectively. Tumor stage as an independent variable affected CRC survival. The mean survival time of the MetS and non-MetS groups was 23 and 27 months respectively. Independent variables like tumor stage (hazard ratio [HR], 1.76; 95% CI, 0.29-0.90) and educational level (HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.23-0.97) had significant effect on CRC survival and MetS (HR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.52-1.5), tumor size (HR, 1.390; 95% CI, 1.237-1.560), family history, age, gender, and smoking had non-significant effect on CRC survival. CONCLUSION MetS could be a prognostic factor for survival in the patients with CRC. The results suggested that effect of MetS was not significant

Is the Ratio of Retracted Iranian Papers Compatible With Their Research Growth Rate? An International Database Survey

Background: Retraction of articles occurs as a result of scientific misconducts or honest errors. Objectives: This study aimed to identify the frequency of retracted Iranian publications, compared to those of other countries and adjust them with influential parameters. Methods: All publications that were indexed on the Scopus database from 2008 to 2017 and then retracted, due to scientific misconduct were extracted through the Retraction Watch database and selected as the research community. To calculate the growth of retraction for each proposed country (or region), first, the rate of an absolute number of retracted papers for the years 2013-2017 was divided by the similar number for years 2008-2012, then this rate was adjusted to the retracted rate which is similarly computed for the total retracted statistics of the world. Results: Overall, 545 Iranian retracted publications from 2008 to 2017 were identified, of which 240 and 305 retracted articles were related to the first five years and the second five years of the study, respectively. The results showed that less than 1% (0.82) of all scientific articles published by Iranian researchers were retracted. However, the rate of retracted scientific articles in Iran compared to this rate in the world was significantly higher. Conclusion: Although retracted Iranian publications make up a small percentage of all Iranian publications, the number of retracted publications is increasing. It is important to recognize the reasons for scientific misconducts and to provide researchers with proper education

Canon Journal of Medicine: Developing Editorial Policies and Recommence of Publication

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Biological and Clinical Relevance of Long Non-Coding RNA PCAT-1 in Cancer, A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) prostate cancer associated transcript 1 (PCAT-1) has been identified as a potential biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of various cancers. We performed this systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the role of dysregulation as well as the biological and clinical significance of lnc-PCAT-1 for predicting the malignancy status in several cancers. Two independent reviewers conducted an extensive search in electronic databases of Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed until the December of 2017. Five articles investigating the clinical significance of lncRNA PCAT-1, including 996 patients, were analyzed. Our results revealed that the increased PCAT-1 expression was related to overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.9, 95%CI: 1.13-3.18, P=0.015). Also, pooled results of the diagnostic data analysis demonstrated that PCAT-1 has a sensitivity of 0.59 and specificity of 0.66 for cancer diagnosis. Moreover, pooled area under curve was 0.62 (95% CI: 0.58–0.69). This meta-analysis revealed that lncRNA PCAT-1 could be served as a potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarker in various solid tumors

Effect of Prayer on Drug, Smoking and Alcohol Consumption in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences

For downloading the full-text of this article please click here.Background and Objectives: Prayer is the major commands of Islam to its followers. Religious leaders and elders know this form of worship is the most important aspects of the realization of religion-oriented behavior in humans. Prayer, In compliance with all terms, inhibits people from deviation while some prayers are ineffective. The purpose of this study is correction of ineffective prayers for more profit. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional research. It was performed on students (Year 86-87) of the Medical Sciences of Tabriz University. The research instrument was a questionnaire. Questions were about prayer as well as smoking, alcohol and drug consumption. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and chi-square test. Student comments were calculated based on percentage and ratio. Significance level was set at 5%. Results: In these students, Commitment to the prayer was high. Prayer experience age was low in Non-consumer students compared to consumer students and a large percentage accounted for age under 15 years. In comparison with smokers and alcohol and drug consumers, Non-Consumer individuals thought pray was just device to get closer to God that was not statistically significant. Non consumer students compared with smokers, alcohol and drugs consumers significantly assumed God is worthy and honorable to worship. They believed prayer is effective in all aspects of life. Few of non-consumers responded positive to items such as lack of belief in prayer, Inconclusive about prayer, Bored and not having time for prayer. Conclusion: The findings show there is a negative and stability relationship among other items of questionnaire and prayer by students and alcohol, cigarettes and drugs consumption. Keywords: Prayer, Cigarette, Alcohol, Drugs, StudentsFor downloading the full-text of this article please click here

Under-estimation and Over-estimation in Gastric Cancer Incidence Registry in Khorasan Provinces, Iran

Gastric cancer is a disease which the cells forming the inner lining of the stomach start to divide uncontrollably, forming a mass called a tumor. Patients with gastric cancer from low facility provinces like North and South Khorasans may diagnose and registered in full featured provinces like Razavi-Khorasan; this causes misclassification error. The presence of this error makes the registry systems inaccurate and unreliable for estimating the burden of cancer and policy making. Two approaches are recommended for reducing the effects of misclassification; the first is using a small validation sample and the second is a Bayesian analysis which provides subjective prior information for the subset of the parameters to correct the statistics. Data for this study extracted from Iranian annual of national cancer registration report in 2008. The age standardized rate due to gastric cancer [ICD-10; C16] were expressed as rate per/100,000 population for male and female of North, South and Razavi Khorasans. To correct the misclassification effect, a Bayesian approach was used with Poisson count regression and beta prior. The reported expected coverage of cancer incidence for Razavi-Khorasan was 155.5% and exceeds than what expected, whereas the North and South Khorasans have just observed respectively 34.8% and 41.4% of their expected coverage. The results of the Bayesian analysis indicated that there was about 34% misclassification in gastric cancer incidence registry from North and South Khorasans in Razavi-Khorasan. In planning for resource allocation, authorities should consider that, low incidence of gastric cancer in North and South Khorasans, may be the effect of misclassification and it is needed to allocate them more health facilities and improve their address registration accuracy using National ID, electric bill, etc.

Application of a non-parametric non-mixture cure rate model for analyzing the survival of patients with colorectal cancer in Iran

OBJECTIVES Colorectal cancer (CRC) patients are considered to have been cured when the mortality rate of individuals with the disease returns to the same level as expected in the general population. This study aimed to assess the impact of various risk factors on the cure fraction of CRC patients using a real dataset of Iranian CRC patients with a non-mixture non-parametric cure model. METHODS This study was conducted on the medical records of 512 patients who were definitively diagnosed with CRC at Taleghani Hospital, Tehran, Iran from 2001 to 2007. A non-mixture non-parametric cure rate model was applied to the data after using stepwise selection to identify the risk factors of CRC. RESULTS For non-cured cases, the mean survival time was 1,243.83 days (95% confidence interval [CI], 1,174.65 to 1,313.00) and the median survival time was 1,493.00 days (95% CI, 1,398.67 to 1,587.33). The 1- and 3-year survival rates were 92.9% (95% CI, 91.0 to 95.0) and 73.4% (95% CI, 68.0 to 79.0), respectively. Pathologic stage T1 of the primary tumor (estimate=0.58; p=0.013), a poorly differentiated tumor (estimate=1.17; p<0.001), a body mass index (BMI) between 18.6 and 24.9 kg/m2 (estimate=−0.60; p=0.04), and a BMI between 25.0 and 29.9 kg/m2 (estimate=−1.43; p<0.001) had significant impacts on the cure fraction of CRC in the multivariate analysis. The proportion of cured patients was 64.1% (95% CI, 56.7 to 72.4). CONCLUSIONS This study found that the pathologic stage of the primary tumor, tumor grade, and BMI were potential risk factors that had an impact on the cure fraction. A non-mixture non-parametric cure rate model provides a flexible framework for accurately determining the impact of risk factors on the long-term survival of patients with CRC

The Effect of Abdominal Touch on Nutritional Tolerance in Premature Infants: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trail

Background The most common cause of death during neonatal period is prematurity. Nutritional tolerance is very important in this period. If during this period the problems of feeding the preterm infant are not resolved, chronic disorder occurs in normal growth. Materials and Methods In this randomized controlledclinical trial we selected 60 preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit of Motahhari Hospital in Urmia, Iran, and randomly assigned to control and intervention groups. The infants were touched using Field technique by olive oil in two steps in the morning and evening, with a time of 15 minutes by first researcher. Nutritional tolerance was evaluated using the "Daily Observation Chart" and by gavage milk volume, abdominal circumference, the frequency of defecations and gastric residual volume. The data were collected during 4 consecutive days and the results were compared on the fourth day, with the first day. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 17.0. Results According to the results, the abdominal circumference after touch was less in the intervention group (1.77±1.38) compared to the control group (1.43±1.22) (